The distinction between pseudo pleasure and true pleasure is one that takes time to suss out in our lives.

Specifically, with food, in the US it’s very easy to think that the whole food you are eating is offering you true pleasure with long lasting health effects, when in fact it is not. Through genetic modification, and genetic selection that favors things like durability, size and shelf life, we have started to leave behind what makes an optimal fruit or vegetable, which is it’s truest expression.

It is said that we no longer really know what a tomato tastes like in this country because we grow that which lasts on trucks and shelves, not tomatoes that taste best or contain the highest amount of it’s offered nutrients.

In fact, I never knew what a tomato truly was until I ate one in Italy. No lie. And let me tell you… the pleasure from biting into that tomato was like nothing I had ever experienced. I had never even liked tomatoes all that much! But this was heaven and I finally got what so many went on about when talking about the deliciousness of a good tomato.

There is so much noise in the media about organic versus non organic or GMOs versus non GMOs. In the end, this is something you need to educate yourself on in order to make the best decisions for you and those you feed. But what I want to say to you is this – The fresher, most authentically itself and unprocessed food is the one that will give you the most pleasure, most nourishment and most longer term positive effects.

Quality + Self Worth + Pleasure

Quality enhances pleasure. The truer something is to it’s essence, the more a food is free to shine in it’s purest expression, the clearer

the connection between the life expression outside your body and the life expression within you.

There is a feedback loop between your sense of self worth, the quality of food you choose to feed yourself and the pleasure you derive from the food you eat. All of these things combine to make for a thriving healthier and fuller life steeped in meaning.

To quote from the Winter Food Practice Through The Seasons book, Winter, A Turning Inward:

“Food, how you choose it, buy it, prepare it, and even share it is not exempt from this. In fact it speaks quite deeply to your own personal relationship with the divine/Life (Life with a capital L) or however we define that. And it’s also deeply tied into your body image, notions of the right or wrong weight, dieting and weight loss.

This means that how we feed ourselves and relate to food reveals how we receive help, nourishment, bounty, joy, love. Nothing is separate or compartmentalized in a souls existence.”

This is to say that when you elevate the quality of the food you choose and take into your body, you elevate the pleasure and the connection to Life you experience by eating and you elevate your own personal sense of self worth.

Food Practice

Pay attention to the foods you buy and eat.

Is it the best quality? Best quality meaning, most authentically what it grew up being in nature?

Is it processed or unprocessed?

Is it modified?

Is it whole?

Where do you obtain your foods?

Is it direct from a farm?

Is it disconnect from the land it was growing on by many points of contact, meaning… factory, processor, combinations with other ingredients, broken down for parts and then re-manufactured into something else?

You will have to explore and define higher quality for yourself. Take time to do this in your personal journal. What matters to you? It is important to note that it has to be meaningful and important to you.

For me, it is food that is closest to it’s natural form as possible. For me elevated quality is organic, whole, from a farmer and unprocessed. It has to be fresh. I know the difference in flavor between fresh and canned. It’s unmistakeable now that I’ve been paying attention for so long.

Assess where your quality point is. Continue to pay attention to flavor and pleasure. Savor what you’re eating, no matter what it is and turn into a detective – pay attention to the quality of pleasure your food is giving you.